


Hit Between the Eyes

by NorthwesternInsanity



Category: Music RPF, Scorpions (Band)
Genre: Angst, Being the mediator, Betrayal, Drama, Fights, Gen, Holding a grudge, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:37:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22927858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthwesternInsanity/pseuds/NorthwesternInsanity
Summary: When the Scorpions have a falling out with Francis Buchholz in 1992, rising tensions get the better of Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker. When the rift torn between them becomes a bigger wound to the band than finding a new bassist, Matthias Jabs and Herman Rarebell realize that they must find a way to help the two back together -not only for the sake of Klaus and Rudolf, but to save their band too.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue: (It's a) Crazy World

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of Rockfic's 2019 Ficmas Fest for user kriankay, who requested Rudolf and Klaus getting in a big fight that nearly breaks up the band as well as their friendship. 
> 
> I did my best to center it around a stressful band event that would explain these two holding out a fight long enough to come to that concern -the departure of Francis Buchholz.

Matthias heaved a sigh as he lay flat on his back in his bunk, staring at the ceiling that closed in on him, barely two feet above.

It was 4:00 o'clock in the morning, and the Scorpions were rolling down the back roads through Germany, homeward bound after the last night of a long tour.

Ordinarily, this would be a time on the bus when he would hear playful banter and joking around. This would be a time when he would hear Klaus singing, or Rudolf playing his guitar without an amp, and the other yelling through laughter for him to be quiet and go to bed. That was assuming they weren't both up and jamming.

Tonight, they were already in their bunks, with few words spoken to each other. Just as they had been for the past few weeks.

Maybe Matthias would be up and jamming or laughing with them. Or maybe he'd be watching the TV or having a late-night-early-morning talk with Herman and Francis. But they'd sent Francis home on a plane as soon as the last show was done, and had planned on it over the last few weeks. _Nobody_ had talked to _him_ during that time, and he'd stayed hidden in his bunk on the bus, not daring to try approaching anyone. He was good as gone even before the last show, when suspicions arose of his wrongdoings.

Frustrated with how it had been handled, even while not supporting Francis' supposed actions, Herman spent most of the time on the bus sleeping -depressed, and uninterested in much of everything onboard.

It was pin silent on the bus. 

Matthias could hear nothing but road noise coming from under the frame of the vehicle housing them. The sound was something he used to only hear when he woke up while everyone else was asleep, or when everyone was sick and trying to get as much rest as possible.

In any case, it wasn't a sound he would hear on the bus for longer than an hour if it meant anything good.

The road noise hurt. It was painful, building on the sad situation stacked around him, and he just wanted it, and everything else wrong in their little world on the bus to go away.

It left an empty void -a blank canvas -for his mind to replay snippets of conversations cut painfully to the quick.

When Rudolf met him in the dressing room earlier that night, with a glare rather than his silly grin...

_"Tell Klaus I have first part of soundcheck. I do not want to see him there."_

When Klaus called on him out in the hallway after one of the crew mistakenly put one of Rudolf's road-cases in his separate room backstage...

_"Matthias, please take this case with you. The crew put it here, not me -by mistake, you know. But Rudolf will say otherwise if I take it to him. He will not listen to me."_

Having not just two, but _three_ separate rooms -one for Francis to be kept away from them, one for Klaus and Herman, and one for Matthias and Rudolf -was already unusual enough, especially with Klaus and Rudolf not being in a room together.

After a week, Matthias had become very tired of being a human telephone line between Klaus and Rudolf.

Klaus seemed to have noticed, because he'd made a few attempts to give short, objective remarks relating to getting ready for the shows to Rudolf himself. But if Rudolf refused to hear it, or wanted to say something in return, Matthias got hooked into it, or Herman did in the rare event he was there first, and Klaus and Rudolf couldn't get through whatever needed to be said in a few short exchanges. They'd at least had enough willing cooperation to spare Herman as much pain as possible, when Francis' hidden betrayal struck him hardest.

But after three weeks, Matthias was aching with exhaustion, and if he was aching, he didn't want to know how much pain Klaus and Rudolf had stuck themselves with by the way they were acting -and knowing how close they were otherwise.

He thought it was crazy how one little fight with one person in the band had managed to set off far worse and leave them in near shambles as the battle through the last few weeks slowly crawled to an end.

_Last night of the Crazy World tour, and it really is just a crazy world..._


	2. FLASHBACK: Hit Between the Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to three weeks before the end of the last tour with Francis. After getting the news from their managers, Klaus and Rudolf have a fight over how to deal with it. Rudolf snaps and says something that deeply hurts Klaus and shocks the rest of the band into silence. Already, their fight is more detrimental than its cause.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: If you've never read my Scorpions fic before, I purposefully make the dialogue with improper grammar and very simplistic language. Since it's a German band, in all reality, they'd more likely be having these conversations in their native dialect. But since I'm writing it in English, I try to write their dialogue as to how it would sound if they did talk this all out in their broken English, just to make it a bit more authentic.
> 
> So, TL;DR, the broken English dialogue is on purpose because they aren't native speakers ...it's not gonna change if you come after me for it.

Francis sat on the edge of the couch in the hotel living room, hunched uneasily over his lap while Rudolf and Klaus argued back and forth and pawed through folders of paperwork and documents on the coffee table. Herman and Matthias tried to steal away looks at the folders from the side without crowding an already claustrophobic space and further frustrating their angry bandmates. 

In addition to arguing with Klaus, Rudolf was holding the phone and on a line with their manager and lawyer, Peter Amend. Their tour manager -"Commander" as they collectively called him -Michael Gehrke, also stood in the room, looking just as stricken as everyone else on the room.

Francis looked stricken as the accusations over the inconsistencies in the paperwork came his way. But while he didn't directly admit to them, he didn't rush to deny them, or seem to have a solid story to prove his innocence. He sat lost in the midst of the chaos.

Herman looked between his best friend in the hot seat, and Klaus and Rudolf as they combed the paperwork and asked Peter questions -desperate to find anything they'd missed pointing to a mistake in the documents. Maybe one that started and followed a set of them downward because someone had simply been careless and hadn't checked that the numbers were consistent across all the files.

But everything pointed to some form of theft from the band, committed by their long-time bassist in the months since reworking their management system. And spending their off-day between performances getting the news from their current managers was not the way anyone had hoped to spend it.

"If this is what we fear it is, and it has happened, Commander, what is next from here through the rest of the tour?"

Francis didn't look up at the devastated voice Herman posed his question with.

"With three weeks left, cancellation is not an option for most nights," said Michael. "We still have a few more things to confirm, and more phone calls to make tomorrow to see what Dieter Dierks has to say. Peter will have more information then as to what has happened. For the sake of keeping everything simple, I would suggest the five of you finish the tour out, and if anyone is leaving, we deal with that when it is over. However, if you insist on having a guest bass player -I cannot guarantee to find one capable of covering all the songs right away, but I might have one halfway through the remaining weeks."

"Try to find one," Klaus said bluntly. "If we must get through this, we can together, you know. But if one is available, I believe it will be easier in other ways for all of us."

"I think we should stay together for the rest of the tour," argued Rudolf. "No replacement."

Klaus visibly tensed, but Rudolf then shot him a peculiar look. They both took a quick glance at Herman -who supposed then that his own discomfort wasn't as well hidden as he'd hoped -then back to each other. When they did reconnect, the look in question was more recognizable as something venomous.

Commander read the difference. He took action then, saving Herman from having to jump in, as he was beginning to fear he would to save their singer and their guitarist from having a showdown right then and there.

"I think you need time to talk this choice over. I will let you have tonight on the bus. Beside that, it is here and you are leaving in an hour. I do not want to rush the decision. However, if you want replacements before the end of the tour, I need to know tomorrow."

"We will have an answer by that time," said Klaus.

Little did Commander know that while he had stopped an argument from happening then and there in the hotel, he'd paved the path to an unmediated argument later. One that would lead to the nastiest night imaginable on the bus, with three painful weeks to follow.

The next hour was silent as they packed the bus up, and tension built throughout the process. When they weren't trying to avoid each other's gazes, Klaus and Rudolf were sending each other stern looks, arguing without words. They were close enough that they could have indeed been having a wordless conversation, but unlike most they had, neither seemed to be yielding to the other's thoughts.

When they weren't passing looks between each other, they were discreetly glancing to Herman, and doing everything possible to avoid looking at Francis at all -who was trying just as hard to avoid them.

They were coming to the realization that Herman might be driven to leave too in the wake of Francis' very likely departure. While his suspected activity since staying with Dieter once everyone else changed hands came as a shock, that Francis was getting tired of playing some of the same hit songs over and over again every night was no secret. Nor was it a secret for Herman, and it wouldn't be too hard for him to follow his friend out.

That possibility only further upset Klaus and Rudolf, having something else to worry about. When they finally all got on the bus and left the hotel behind for their night of traveling, Francis climbed straight up into his bunk and pulled the curtain.

Herman and Matthias stayed out of the way in the front lounge, ready to jump in only if asked. They left the small back lounge just past the bunks to Klaus and Rudolf to finish talking it out so they could come to an agreement.

Or, fighting it out.

Whether or not they really came to an agreement was questionable in itself.

They were wound up tight as seven-day clocks, and when they began to strike with spoken words, whether it was intended it or not, they made sure Francis heard _every word._ They managed somehow to make sure Matthias and Herman heard the gist of it too.

Losing his patience, Rudolf tossed his hands up in the air with disgust. "I knew that when we cut ties with Dieter, it went over too easy! It went too fast and with no problem for us getting out, and it was too easy when Francis decided to stay with him to separate the papers for everyone. Something had to have gone wrong when we went through that, and we did not notice!"

"We do not know what Dieter had to do with this and what he did not," insisted Klaus. "Until Peter can find the stuff we have in files with him, we cannot point a finger at him for this, or know what and what not Francis had to do with it. I do not trust Dieter any longer, but we cannot blame him yet. And we cannot say that he did not do all of this and that Francis did not either. We cannot turn against Francis if we do not know that he could have been used or bribed to stay for this."

"Francis is NOT stupid, Klaus!" Now Rudolf was yelling loud. "He may not know what has happened if Dieter did it all through his account, but he had to know SOMETHING was not right. We left, and he had the chance to leave with us. He KNEW, and he should have done something and not let it happen...!"

"Francis was the one who called me to come be in this band," Matthias murmured in stunned disbelief. He never thought that receiving math tutoring from an engineering student a few years older than him would later return the musical favor it had, and it was hard to believe that somebody who had given him so much could have played dirty behind all their backs.

"I don't know what has happened, Matthias." Herman wished he could deny it all from who he knew Francis to be, but unless Peter found something very different when he called their previous manager, Herman didn't see how he logically could.

Matthias cupped his hand around his ear as he heard Klaus' voice beginning to rise to match Rudolf so that they were clearly going back and forth. "They are fighting?"

"Let's hope they can figure it out," said Herman, not looking or sounding hopeful at all.

"..._This,"_ said Rudolf, pointing around the bus aisle and the uncomfortable quiet, "if this is the bed that Francis has made for us as well as him, _he must lie in it._ If we should lay in it, he should as well as us. And if Peter and all of us are wrong and he finds something else tomorrow, we have Francis here in this place. While I do not trust much of him in this time, he is the shy one of us. He might have been stuck -frozen up, with all of us asking him these questions at once." 

"Most of everyone here in this place is overwhelmed, you know, Rudy?!" 

Klaus paced the bus aisle as he went onto a rare rant of his own, looking uncharacteristically rigid and high-strung. The last time he'd looked as he did was when he'd blown out his vocal cords, and the similarity was quickly setting the tone to be achieved by the steadily rising tension.

He wanted Francis sent home as soon as they could to reduce the tension for all of them. Rehearsing with a different bassist mid-tour would be a challenge, but they wouldn't have to sit with Francis and their suspicions of him. Klaus felt it would be less painful for them -for Herman in particular -and if they found something different later, then they wouldn't have spent three miserable weeks together, building up walls that would permanently scar their friendship with Francis.

"Rudy, this is not about only Francis. It is about us as a band. We do not _need_ to do this to all of us -we do not need to make this harder than it will be already. And if Francis did not do it, he does not need to suffer. Even if he did, to make him miserable -it does not change this."

"But _what if_ Francis did not? That is the problem I am saying, Klaus! He would be with us if he stays in this place! If we send him home, how does he get back here to the tour?"

"It is not so hard to bring him back out on tour once he has been home, and he has not had to be here for _this._ Or to bring him back for next tour. When I was injured, I stopped until there was no more problem to keep it from getting worse," Klaus tried to explain. "Maybe we need to have Francis away for a short time during this so it does not get worse either."

Then Rudolf dropped the words that tore through the bus like a missile.

"Maybe we should have gotten a different singer when it was _you_ with the problem, and never call you back!"

Herman cringed and sucked air in between gritted teeth. 

Shocked as well, Matthias leaned forward and tried to catch his eye, but Herman only shook his head sadly. He sneaked a look down the bus aisle to see that the coast was clear and crept off to his bunk without a word while he could.

Matthias knew exactly what he was thinking, despite the silence.

_Too far, Rudy. You have jumped into the deep end of crazy once again, but this time you have gone too far._

Klaus recoiled as if he'd been slapped in the face -right between the eyes. He didn't have words to give back to Rudolf's statement. It was as if his vocal cords had quit again, and this time out of pure shock.

Feeling dazed by the final blow on top of the previous ones dealt throughout the day, he didn't even try to find words to give back when Rudolf kept going, volume steadily rising until he was yelling down at Klaus and through the bus again.

"What if your vocal cords would not have gotten better? If we found a singer to take your place before you got the surgery, and if we did not give you a chance for it to work out? We waited for you as a band, and we would not regret it even if it _was_ for nothing. But maybe not waiting and finding someone else -maybe it was what we _should_ have done! _Maybe I wish we left you then!"_

Rudolf stopped yelling then, because Klaus turned and walked away and left him standing alone in the back lounge.

The only thing left of the argument was the hurt and anger in Klaus' eyes when he arrived to the front with Matthias, where they sat in the ugly silence that fell over, waiting for the thickest dust to settle.

Finally, they glanced to each other wearily as their world continued to crash down around them. 

Klaus was still in a stunned silence, unable to grasp any words, as badly as he wanted to stop the chasm from growing any deeper.

Matthias didn't know what to say either. He wanted to comfort Klaus. He felt the deep pain radiating from his wounds. But he didn't want to pick sides, as wrong as Rudolf's words had been. Rudolf had to be well out of sorts to have snapped the way he did. His moments of insanity were almost exclusively in the name of fun, and this had been something else entirely. Klaus needed support, but Rudolf did too, and Matthias didn't want to deny him that. They were _both_ heartbroken, and the shockwave from two broken hearts was strong enough to break everyone else's.

Finally, he stood up to leave for his bunk as Herman had. It was the only fair, neutral answer he knew.

"I am sorry," he offered to Klaus on his way out, feeling the words scrape his throat like razor blades as he forced them out.

It was once Klaus was alone that Rudolf's words fully sank in.

They had promised to wait for him when he'd damaged his vocal cords. And they had, even when he had gladly encouraged them to find someone else. They'd encouraged him to keep fighting for recovery when he was ready to give up.

Those were the things that made Scorpions important to Klaus. The music, the touring, the excitement and fame -those were nice, but they were superficial. They weren't the true meaning of the band.

Finding out about Francis' alleged activities had already driven a knife into all that trust and sense of family.

But when Rudolf told him he wished they'd split regardless of his recovery over a decade ago, he grabbed hold of the implanted knife and dragged it through, tearing a jagged line in its wake. Now, a thick wall of scar tissue was already beginning to build up around it, for an entirely different reason than what he'd feared would put it there.

He tried to look at it neutrally. Tried to write off most of Rudolf's rant as being out of control with anger. He knew the point was that they needed to give Francis a chance to stay too before they knew everything.

Klaus just didn't know how giving him that last chance to stay in the band depended on him staying or leaving for the last few nights of that particular tour -or how being trapped in the anger was fair to Francis if he indeed deserved that chance.

Now, however, his own hope of reducing the pain the rest of the band would feel had been crushed. With Rudolf clearly holding him on the outs, it seemed that sending Francis home wasn't so important.

When Matthias crawled into his bunk, Klaus was left to be the only one up on the bus as silence began engulfing it whole.

He went up to the front, asked the driver for the phone, and called Commander.

"Klaus? Is everybody alright."

"Don't get a replacement, Commander," he said defeatedly. "We will go through to the end with Francis and do what comes next when we are home."

Those were the last words spoken before the silence took over. Once Klaus hung up, the band had succumbed to it.

From Rudolf's bunk, it set in even faster. There, he could only hear the shuffling of somebody adjusting their blankets, and the uneven, muffled breathing of somebody discreetly crying into a pillow. He didn't have enough heart left in him to see who it was and offer comfort.

Granted, Matthias was the only one he really could have helped if he'd tried. He didn't want to comfort Francis, and knew he was too disappointed with him to be sincere, regardless of what he'd actually done. Herman would be embarrassed to be seen emotional and ask to be left alone.

There was little chance that any words uttered from his own mouth could have served to provide any comfort to Klaus. At least not so soon after the venomous ones he'd last stung him with, and already regretted

It was all denial. Denial had driven his argument with Klaus, and he knew the rest of it had been fueled by the impending grief of a split in the band. They didn't want to think Francis had a part of it, even though they knew he had some part; they were angry that he had and angry with each other for not seeing it sooner; they were ready to pay Peter to dig through everything that could possibly yield something they actually wanted to hear, and the desperate need to cope with the unfolding situation had pushed Klaus and Rudolf onto different opinions.

And Rudolf couldn't tell which of those was harder to come to an acceptance of.

They agreed on everything right up until whether or not to send Francis home, and that alone frustrated him, because it seemed _so stupid_ when it didn't change anything, but had led to such a nasty fight.

Ultimately, he knew that Francis would leave the band for good at the end of the tour, innocent or not. Even if he went home that very night, there was enough damage that he knew their shy bassist would insist that the friendship between them would never be the same. He would fear that any time something came up in the future, he would be faced with immediate suspicion of being involved, and would believe that it would be best that he left.

Rudolf clung to the little hope that in the last three weeks they had, some miracle would come up when Peter Amend called Dieter to prove the blame on Francis a huge misunderstanding, and that they would be able to enjoy the little time they had left together with whatever level of friendship they could salvage. The longer Francis stayed for the remaining weeks, the better chances of it happening, and the more time they might have from the time they got the news he hoped for.

But Rudolf knew it wouldn't happen, just as well as Klaus knew, and had accepted that it wouldn't sooner than he had. The bitter thought dug its way into the wound in their own friendship, tearing it further. It buzzed inside Rudolf's head like a silently-dealt 'I-told-you-so', strengthening the anger he pointed toward Klaus as he struggled to drift off to sleep in his bunk.


	3. Your Pride Has Built a Wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _...Two weeks had passed since the end of the _Crazy World_ tour, and five weeks had passed since Klaus and Rudolf's blowup on the bus..._ The Scorpions have their first meeting in the studio following the fight and Francis' departure. The outlook is already poor, as Klaus and Rudolf both arrive very late.

For Rudolf to be late to the studio wasn't an overly-frequent thing, but it wasn't unheard of. It was _how late_ he was, and the lack of his phone call to say he was running late before leaving his house that was concerning.

For Klaus to be anything less than half an hour _early_ -let alone a whole hour late -was never the result of anything good. He always arrived well ahead of everyone else to make sure his voice was well warmed up, and took the process slow to prevent a future injury.

Except for today.

Two weeks had passed since the end of the _Crazy World_ tour, and five weeks had passed since Klaus and Rudolf's blowup on the bus. Today was the first day they'd scheduled to meet each other.

After a week off, it had taken another week of 'circular phone tag' to agree on a time to come into the studio. Rudolf called Klaus, and Klaus missed the call. He was out of the house when it came through, and he tried to call Rudolf back later once he got home.

By then, Rudolf had decided that Klaus was holding a grudge and had tried to ignore the call, which reignited his anger from the fight. So _he_ didn't pick up the phone either. Instead, he called Matthias, and refused to be told any different about Klaus not answering the phone. So Matthias called Herman to see what times they could agree on that Rudolf suggested, and then Herman called Klaus to see if he had any times in common with those. Klaus tried to call Rudolf _again_ to confirm the time, didn't get an answer, and had to call Herman to confirm and pass the final agreement back around the loop.

After all the production, Herman was the _only_ one who arrived to the studio on time. When he entered to silence and no replies to his call, a quick check of the parking lot on the other side of the building confirmed he was on his own. 

Had it just been one of them late, he'd have chalked it up to something unexpected at home or trouble with the car. Or maybe one of them had taken public transport in and that got delayed.

However, with both Klaus and Rudolf late, and no sign of reconciliation between them to his knowledge, he was almost certain it was the result of avoidance and dread. 

Herman wished he could work up sympathy when he felt the same way, but he was _done_ with it. The tour was _over._ As hard as it was to accept, Francis was _gone_. They had to get another bassist before booking the next tour they hoped to do, and he couldn't work on doing that without their input. With the fight itself, whether or not they could book the tour _at all_ was in question. Whether or not the band would even live to get another bassist was hard to tell. It felt like a dying band, all because of a stupid fight that couldn't be over already. And frustrating as it was, more than anything, it was sad.

Matthias showed up twenty minutes past the hour they'd planned for. He looked exhausted and worn out before the day had even started as he nearly dragged his guitar bag from his car to the door, where Herman watched and waited for him.

"Herman, I apologize for being late. I was awake early and knew what time to come to this place, but it took much longer than usual to get out of the house -I did not expect it -I tried to be ready fast-"

Sadly shaking his head, Herman stuck his hands out before him and placed his hands on Matthias' shoulders to keep him from going any further. He looked his youngest bandmate in the eyes, sharing a look of mutual understanding, and in a greater show of empathy than he usually made under normal circumstances, pulled Matthias in and hugged him.

Then he pointed to his car, Matthias' car, and the otherwise empty parking lot.

"We go inside now and wait," he declared, with more defeat than authority. "You have no need to worry."

They both knew Klaus and Rudolf were dragging through the morning for the same reasons Matthias was, feeling far worse, and struggling all the more to keep up.

Finally, an hour after the agreed time, Klaus drove in.

"Sorry I am late to this place. I warmed up as best as I could in the car to save time."

"We still wait for Rudy," Matthias murmured.

"Well..." Klaus slowed down in his tracks and seemed to wilt. "I guess I will warm up for more time now." He walked off toward the recording booth to do so privately.

Matthias wondered if Klaus purposefully took extra time in the car once he was already late to warm up there, in hopes of avoiding Rudolf, but he didn't say anything. It didn't make any difference when they were still waiting.

Rudolf arrived another quarter hour later, and when he arrived, he was strangely tense and quiet. Often times, when he was late, he would put on a silly act coming in the door. He would blare on his car horn rolling into the parking lot, run up the walk in a low crouch as if making a stealth attack, get the door slightly ajar, kick it all the way open with a loud shout, then spring his maniacal grin and shrill laugh.

Today, he walked swiftly to the door, wrenched it open, carelessly slung it shut behind himself, and made his way to the lounge to meet his bandmates.

Herman raised an eyebrow and gave him a suspicious look, but didn't make a problem of it. Matthias didn't say anything either. The last thing either of them wanted was for Rudolf to assume they'd taken sides and were against him, or the opposite.

"You are too quiet today, Matthias," Rudolf quipped. "Are you not well?"

"Are _you?"_

Rudolf faltered then; the slightest hint of discomfort cracked through his facade to show itself.

"I have seen worse." His expression hardened again. "Is Klaus at this place?"

"He is in the booth warming up for rehearsal," said Herman, standing up from the table and crossing his arms. "Do you need time to get ready?"

"No, I do not wish to be 'inconvenience' to the rest of you." There was a hard, sarcastic emphasis on inconvenience as Rudolf spoke it.

"We are not upset at you for being late, Rudy," Matthias ceded. "Klaus was late too."

The latter statement reversed the first. He _was_ upset that Rudolf was over an hour late. He just wasn't any more upset with Rudolf than he was at Klaus over the delayed start, and he didn't want Rudolf to think he'd been put on the spot for it any more than Klaus had when nobody aside from Herman was truly innocent.

"Mmmm." Rudolf hummed a soft note and closed his eyes with raised eyebrows, then proceeded to go unpack his guitar.

Matthias watched to make sure he was entirely out of the room before speaking.

"Herman?"

"Yes, Matthias?"

"What was Rudolf like when the band had the fallout with Uli and Michael? The part of it I did not see, you know."

Herman buried his face in his hands and sighed.

"He was okay with Uli. With Michael, worse than this. But, he is almost as bad now. I do not have great feeling about this, Matthias."

With that, he left Matthias to watch as he followed Rudolf out. Matthias didn't have the right to shame Rudolf for being so late, having been tardy himself, but Herman did. Due to the sensitive nature of how the fight played out, he already planned to deal with Klaus in a gentler way later. Rudolf could tolerate what he had coming to him.

Rudolf turned around to face him and gulped.

"Herman?"

"What is the problem?"

With that, Rudolf had dropped half his guard.

"You know what the problem is and who has made it!"

"What, Klaus being late? Not at home when you called him, and then you would not hear that he was not home?" Herman shrugged loosely as he posed his questions, then went rigid and stern. "It is _not_ about _you._ You think that it all is; it is not."

"And Klaus does not think the same? That he is still avoiding me for what I did not mean as it sounded?"

"He will continue to avoid if you give him no chance to speak. There are other bands that have been destroyed because of _this,"_ Herman hissed. "I have not said it before now, because it has been hard, and most of us with the tour were tired as well. But I have had _enough_ of this. It is time to move on."

"What about how he would not listen to me about Francis?" Rudolf looked indignant. "Was that all about him?"

"That is OVER." Now Herman's waning patience was _really_ showing. "Get over it. NOW!"

A knock came on the door. It was Klaus.

"I am ready to rehearse now," he spoke quietly, taking a nervous glance toward Rudolf's sour expression, and keeping a weary aura as he regarded Herman. "I will wait for the two of you if you need time."

"I am ready," muttered Herman, turning away from Rudolf.

Rudolf loudly blew out through his nostrils to make them flare, but he turned and followed them, and they joined Matthias on the rehearsal floor.

Rehearsal started rough.

Musically, they did well.

Aside from the two incidents. One of which, Rudolf started soloing over a verse after the chorus, because he hadn't been listening to Klaus, and thought they were further along in the song than they were. The other, Klaus wasn't watching Rudolf to know that he was going into a short, extended improv jam in his solo, and sang out a couple of words before realizing and going quiet.

Rudolf tried to walk over to Klaus during the chorus, but seeing the weary look in Klaus' eyes, he backed off before trying. Then, when Klaus slowly started to approach him, he turned and moved to the other side of the room.

Soon, they were either following each other to no avail, or looking around where they could go away from each other. Both were sure that if they tried to approach the other, they'd walk away.

An hour into rehearsal, Rudolf gave up on trying to approach Klaus and firmly settled for avoiding him. 

He began gravitating toward Matthias, when for a split second, he noticed the younger guitarist looked like he wanted to cry. As he played his lead woven through the verse, he gazed up to the ceiling, pressed his lips together firmly, and swallowed hard, then shook his head and focused harder on his fingering than necessary to force it down. It made Rudolf think back to hearing the muffled sobbing in the bunks after the fight, and how he chose not to go after the source.

A surge of guilt shot through him then, not only for not having checked on Matthias that night to see if he could have at least helped him, but also for knowing he had a good part of why he was so upset now. 

Then the hard feelings with Klaus began welling up again. He'd had a part of the fight too, which ultimately caused it all. Maybe, Rudolf figured, he should have listened to Klaus' reasons to send Francis home before losing his temper with him, but Klaus hadn't really stopped to listen to his reasons for keeping Francis with them either.

He wanted to be upset that Herman wouldn't acknowledge that to his face, even though he knew Herman knew. It made him question if Herman had sided against him, if it wasn't just part of his waning closeness to the band in general.

Rudolf looked back to Matthias. They were still friends as far as he knew. He'd gotten closer to Matthias over the years, even if he still wasn't as close as he was to Klaus. He didn't want to lose _their_ friendship, regardless of what happened with Klaus and the band, and he hated to see their other guitarist overwhelmed for much longer.

At that point, he stopped trying to focus on staying away from Klaus as much as he'd stopped trying to approach him, and he ran over beside Matthias and crouched with his guitar to nudge his shoulder against his arm with a playful -if forced -look. At least he'd be the one who went to Matthias first.

Matthias' eyes lit up, and he broke into a grin. Together, they kicked their legs up in the air and began their synchronized rocking side to side from foot to foot while standing near each other.

Upon watching it, Herman's rhythm seemed to tighten up. His strikes on the drums went from disinterested and lagging with the harder, angry strike emphasizing the main beat to the energetic tune of "Blackout".

As Klaus turned to face him singing, and began to make dramatic gestures along with the lyrics for fun, Herman leaned forward and nodded to the beat as if to cheer Klaus on.

They began to have so much fun that for the second hour of rehearsal, it almost felt that the band was fine, even in the gaping absence of the bass line's depth. Rudolf forgot about his problem with Klaus, and all he cared about was enjoying his jam with Matthias, trading licks when it was possible as they moved in synch. Klaus felt his pain slipping away and could only think of being happy to still be in the band as memories came flooding back of his return to tour the album after recovering.

Even Herman began to feel a sense of hope that maybe they would indeed finish rehearsal on good terms. But as they came to a stop, and Rudolf and Klaus took weary glances to each other and stayed to opposite sides of the room, reality smacked into them like a car skidding off the German autobahn and into a tree.

Even in the most enjoyable hour of rehearsal, they'd played as a band divided, and the wound between Klaus and Rudolf was deep as ever.


	4. Stung

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Herman talks with Klaus. Both fear a possible end, but have very different feelings toward it, aside from one thing they know even Rudolf could agree on.

Once rehearsal was over, the dreaded replacement talks began. Peter Amend had scheduled a call with them in the late afternoon on the matter to give suggestions of his own. However, his hope was the same as theirs in that they would already have a few ideas as to who they might invite to audition before that call. That way, he could let them know if he knew from his perspective whether anyone they'd thought of wouldn't be easily contacted. Peter could also tell them if they had ties to Dieter, which they'd all agreed -in spite of the divide -was a deal breaker.

When they'd all spat out initial suggestions that were entirely different, and Klaus made an innocent question on what bands had Rudolf's suggestion been in, Rudolf tensed up and asked if he could share his ideas with Matthias alone, and if they could then regroup and share what they'd come up with separately.

"Is it _not_ possible for us to talk about who we should get with all of us in same room?" complained Matthias.

"Well, what does Klaus think?" Rudolf cast Klaus a demanding look.

"I am okay with us doing this together, but if you would feel more comfortable without me there, you know, I am okay with that too," Klaus offered.

"See? We should do this separately!"

Leaning on the wall, Herman discreetly blew out a sigh and gazed up to the ceiling.

Matthias resigned to following Rudolf to another room. "Alright, Klaus, Herman, are you two alright on your own?" 

Herman snorted. "Do we have a choice?"

"I'll give what I can," said Klaus, casting a guilty look between Herman and Matthias as the latter walked out.

While they'd agreed to discuss possible replacements on their own too, Herman found himself having a sit-down conversation with Klaus about the fight instead. The icy, stoic exterior Klaus had pointed at Rudolf since recovering from his initial shock at the sharp words quickly broke through in Rudolf’s absence, leaving Herman to navigate the storm of hurt and conflicted feelings underneath it.

"Klaus, we cannot book the tour with the two of you acting like this," he tried to reason. "Finding a bass player and learning how to play with a new one is one thing, and it is hard enough while this keeps going. To have this for a whole tour? It will be a disaster!"

Klaus knew it would be a disaster to have an entire tour like the ending of the last. The last three weeks had been painful enough. 

Everything they usually enjoyed together felt like work. Performing was work. Soundcheck was work. There was no party or any kind to speak of backstage or on the bus after the show, because nobody felt like hanging out to have one.

Traveling was exhausting tenfold, because there was nothing to enjoy in between the hassle of it. When there had been breaks in between shows, there had been times where they'd gone off to do things on their own, but for the most part, Klaus found himself staying alone in his hotel room. There were places they stopped where it wouldn't have been safe to go out on his own if he'd chosen to, and everywhere else, he felt depressed enough that he didn't feel like doing it.

Klaus enjoyed a certain amount of time alone that Rudolf and Matthias did not, but for him, there was a big difference between choosing to be alone and feeling like there wasn't a choice. He'd been so lonely and homesick at the end of the tour that he doubted he'd be able to function on the tour schedule much longer. If he couldn't stand it, there was no way Rudolf and Matthias would be able to stand it even if they stuck to each other. Eventually, he suspected Herman would struggle with it even without the absence of Francis fresh on his mind, and whoever would be his replacement wouldn't have any reason to stay if his experience was terrible right from the start.

At least Rudolf still seemed to be every bit as close to Matthias as before. Klaus wondered if the answer was to just allow them to keep that without leading Matthias to have to go to the trouble to be the mediator between them.

"Maybe... The surgery -we do not know how long it will last, you know." Klaus held out an upturned palm. "Maybe Rudy is right. Maybe you should get new singer and I should leave before another problem comes, and then he can get his way and the band goes on fine."

Herman slammed his fist down angrily on the table.

_"Nein!_ Stop it at once! I _will not_ play this game with you, Klaus," he insisted sternly. "Do not even try it. I would not play it then, and I will not play it now. If that is what you are going to do and how this will go, I will go find Francis. And he and I will start new project."

Shock started to creep into Klaus' expressionless eyes, and Herman held a hand up like a cop.

He dropped his voice to a whisper, causing his accent to all but obscure his words.

"And zhat is not because I agree with what we suspect zhat he did. If he did what we think, it was wrong. Still, I would rather take zhe chance -to be careful and do what I should to keep him in place -because _I do not want to choose_ between zhe two of you over zhis. I will _not."_

Klaus continued to look at him, stunned.

"This is stupid," said Herman, returning to a normal volume. "If I must go away from one of you, I will leave _both."_

_I KNOW that it is stupid,_ thought Klaus glumly as he slumped forward on his arm against the edge of the table. He had a hunch, and along with knowing he'd caused Herman to feel forced to choose between friends, it was only making him feel guilty faster.

"Herman," he began uncertainly after a moment of silence. "I have had a fear for some time now -before any of this -have you wanted to leave the band?"

Herman sat up and lifted his arms to brace himself against the table as he heaved a sigh.

"To give an honest answer, yes. I do have plan to leave -eventually. Perhaps not now."

"I know you have not been as happy with the music, as they suggest we should follow -so, what is it that has made you want to stay?"

"The reason I try to stay in this place now, for only a bit longer, is to make easier for all of you to keep this band together," admitted Herman. "If you do not want that, and you will break it up anyway, I can leave before the tour, and you must find a new drummer too. I hope I will not have to do that to whoever will remain."

Klaus stayed silent for a moment, then slowly gave a nod. "I do not want you to have to leave sooner than you will."

"I realize why this is very hard for you, Klaus. Maybe more than for some of us."

With an unusual, comforting display for him, Herman reached across the table and put his hand on Klaus' shoulder, causing the singer to look up into his saddened eyes.

"But you cannot forget that _you_ are not the only one who has been stung in this."

Klaus nodded understandingly. They would all be stung further if it did continue, and the injury ranged from bad to worse.

"This band may not be the place for me in the years ahead, Klaus, but this is a great band," said Herman. "This with you and Rudy is worse than anything Dieter and Francis might have done. It will destroy this band, and this band is too good to die because of this."

_I know it is. And I know Rudy feels the same way._

"How should I approach Rudy then, to fix this, you know?"

At that, Herman faltered.

"I do not know. But I need you to _try._ Before there is no coming back from this."


	5. Losing All We Had

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparing to search for a new bassist might be harder than the task itself with the band divided, and despite all efforts to avoid conflict, the day does not proceed without a hitch. Having spent most of his time with Rudolf since the fight by chance alone, Matthias sits down for a talk with Klaus in an attempt to encourage him to break through the wall between him and Rudolf, and draw a path forward. Sometimes, being understood is the best first step.

Matthias had a phone book and a list on the table before him. Or two lists, and a blank sheet of paper that was the start of a third.

Herman had started the first list. Rudolf had added to it while Herman talked with Klaus.

Klaus handed in his own list he'd put together at home after the previous, difficult day. He wanted to have his added only after it was sure Rudolf was done making additions, lest he have a problem with his own contribution.

Now, returning for a second day and being finished with rehearsal, Matthias had to write a new list that would combine the other two with his additions, and account for any duplicate suggestions between Klaus' list and Herman and Rudolf's.

The list was inclusive of all managers and producers they'd worked with, aside from Dieter, those that had connections but hadn't worked directly with them, all the bass players that had connections or had been in the Scorpions prior to when Francis joined, and bass players they knew in smaller acts that weren't holding up with the changes defining the 90s.

By every name on the combined list, Matthias looked up and wrote down a phone number. And unless somebody called them with an offer by the end of the week or interest in auditioning, over the next few days, they would be calling every number on that list, and possibly chasing a phone chain onward from those, until they found a replacement.

For everyone's sake, they all hoped they'd find who they wanted in the first few calls. 

With the length of the list, Matthias was less worried about finding someone on that list than finding answers to the state of the band -and someone who might know what to try that they hadn't already. The Scorpions weren't accustomed to a huge amount of in-fighting that didn't settle in a matter of a few days.

Matthias wondered if one of those singers who had assisted with the demos while Klaus recovered could provide him some outside, neutral perspective on the whole thing. Don Dokken came from a band notorious for struggling with conflict -he might have good sight on one that he did not have attachment to one side in. They were all good friends with him -Herman and Klaus in particular.

However, they had broken up three years prior with a painful ending, and Matthias realized the subject of fighting might be too painful for Don to discuss -if he wasn't sick of it altogether. He'd also heard rumors that Don was back in contact with Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson, and he didn't want to destabilize any chance that at least they might work out the past trauma and find a way forward, whether or not George Lynch would ever rejoin.

Besides that, he was quickly realizing that since Don had been there to help when Klaus was sick, consulting him might come across as springing off the worst of Rudolf's outburst. Klaus would think back to it, possibly reigniting his pain, and Rudolf might see it as rubbing his mistake in his face.

_Forget about that._ Maybe he could call up Warren DeMartini, their good friend from Ratt. He certainly wasn't a stranger to fights breaking out, or being the one on the sideline having to watch it unfold.

No, he couldn't get Warren either. Michael Schenker was filling the place of Robbin Crosby on the current tour. If there wasn't enough drama to have nailed Matthias down to the floor with Rudolf and Klaus already, he would need an excavation crew to rescue him if Rudolf thought he was looking to jump sides with his little brother in the endless feud _they_ had.

Whatever it was between Rudolf and Michael, it had started before he got there, and Matthias didn't want any part of it beyond the bitterness Michael had with him over the gigs he had to replace him on because he was wasted. Matthias made a point of laying low whenever Michael was mentioned. That was the only other fight he knew of that hadn't ended quickly, and beyond the start of it, it had little effect on any of them in the band aside from Rudolf.

The only good in it was the hope that they'd get through the current mess as a band. The band successfully lived through the falling out between the Schenker brothers. It _had_ to live through the falling out with Francis.

Maybe there was still a good reason to hope that it would live through the fight between Rudolf and Klaus.

While he worked on copying numbers from the phone book, he continued to ponder the matter. He didn't have anyone else he could think of to call for advice ahead of time, so they were just going to have to hope that someone high up on the list would have what they needed.

Matthias snapped out of his thoughts as he heard something crash in the other room. Before the noise itself came to a stop, he heard Herman shout over it.

_"Quatsch!"_

With a sigh, Matthias rolled his eyes, shook his head, and continued pushing down the list as the end neared. He couldn't stop when he was three numbers away from the end of his tedious task.

He didn't think too much of it either. Through the slightly ajar door, the sound was muffled enough to make him think that Herman knocked a cymbal over while trying to set the rest of his drums up -which had happened before, and was one of the few musically-related things that tested Herman's patience enough to get him yelling.

_"Mensch,_ Rudy," scolded Klaus over the sound of a door slamming.

After that, there was the sound of other doors opening and closing through the hallway, which seemed odd enough, but was still able to be chalked up to looking for something.

He knew he was in denial, but he didn't want to think anything nasty had happened in the other room.

"I have list of phone numbers ready," said Matthias as he came back around the doorway.

He entered the room to find Klaus with the industrial mop and wringer-bucket from the supply closet, and Herman with a broom and a small cardboard box. Herman was wearing gloves and picking up what looked to be larger pieces of glass off the floor to drop into the box, and Klaus was wearing his sunglasses inside as he mopped up a dark liquid on the floor.

"Herman, what hap-?"

Herman fixed Matthias with a stern look. 

_"Do not_ ask me." He pointed to Klaus. "This is with _you_ and Rudy. I have no part of it."

"Rudy went kamikaze." Klaus' voice was strained. "I said something he did not like and he said something else, you know, and I tell him it is not how I would do it, but I did not see anything wrong if we did what he said and he could have his way, you know, and then he threw coffee pot."

_Why am I not surprised that he did something crazy?_

"Where is he?" Matthias demanded. "Is he still at this place?" 

"No. He stormed out and went home." 

_And left us this mess,_ went unsaid. Now Matthias knew for sure why he'd heard a door slam, and he couldn't deny what he'd hoped it wasn't the result of.

Herman swept the finer pieces of glass up into a dustpan and dumped them out in the garbage can, forcefully slamming the pan against the side and creating quite a bit of racket.

Then, he picked up the box of larger glass pieces and stormed outside himself, to put the glass in the dumpster where they wouldn't rip through the garbage bag and cause another mess the next time someone changed that bag.

"I am sorry, Matthias."

Sighing as he leaned against the wall, Matthias did not make eye contact with Klaus, lest he be mistaken for choosing sides when he'd become an obligate mediator -and would have to work doubly hard today, he realized, as Herman's patience was just about spent.

"I am also sorry, Klaus."

Herman rubbed his temples as he made his way back inside, muttering and swearing under his breath. He kept his eyes diverted to the floor and away from the lights. His face was pale and his eyes were sunken.

Matthias winced, realizing there was more to it than Herman's patience running out. 

_Migraine. It must have hit him just now from stress,_ he thought, feeling the band was more unstable than ever despite their attempts to hold it together.

"Herman, do you need to go home?" Klaus looked up from the mop bucket with concern.

"Do you need me to stay here for today?" Herman looked between Klaus and Matthias through clouded eyes, and for the tiniest moment, he looked on the verge of passing out. "Will the two of you be alright?"

Klaus and Matthias barely exchanged a glance with each other before spurting in unison:

"Yes, we will!"

"This will not kill me. I am able to stay if-"

"Herman, you go _home_," Klaus insisted. "Go home and rest yourself before you become ill, you know. I will stay with Matthias. We are not rehearsing, you know. We are only to call from the list for the rest of the day."

Matthias managed one of his more typical sassy smiles beneath the wistful look in his eyes. "I can hold fort down. We will make it for you."

With a weak attempt of a lopsided smile that didn't make it to his eyes, Herman nodded a silent thanks and farewell for the day, and made his exit.

Matthias watched out the window as their overwhelmed drummer made his way through the parking lot and spent a moment leaning against his car to collect himself, forehead in hand. Even in his vulnerable state, he leaned against the hood of the car rather than the door to feign a degree of strength before getting in and driving off.

He turned around just in time to see Klaus finish mopping up the last of the coffee. Then he began to drag the mop bucket off toward the bathroom. It was the first time Matthias ever saw Klaus really struggle with something heavy, despite his small stature.

_I bet he wants to go home too,_ he thought to himself. _So do I. We ALL want to go home instead of being here in this place with each other like this._

The thought scared him, so much that he didn't hear Klaus had returned until he spoke, peering around the kitchen doorway.

"Matthias?" 

"Yes, Klaus?" Hurriedly, Matthias followed Klaus to sit down in the kitchen.

"You do not plan to leave this band, do you?"

"Why? You are asking me because of all this with Francis and Rudolf, and because we are worried about how long Herman will be here?"

"You are the only one, Matthias, who does not seem to have a problem. I want to make sure that is true, before it is too late for you."

"No, Klaus. All of you are family to me. To each other. All of us, you know," insisted Matthias. "That is why when you were sick, we said 'we wait for you'. And we still would if we had to now, if it happened again. Rudy would wait -I know what he said, but-"

"He did not mean it," finished Klaus. "I know he did not. It hurt, but I forgive him already."

"He knows that, you know. Rudy is crazy. He can say it that he is crazy. But if he heard me say that, he would tell me I have 'big mouth'. Well, it is because this big mouth will say he is embarrassed when he pretends he is not."

"It is a stupid fight." Klaus laughed with regret. "I do not want to fight with Rudy any longer. I just worry that maybe, if he cannot forgive me, he will decide to leave too, you know, when already, we are losing so much. Even if you will stay."

"Give him time." Matthias snorted and waved it off. "I think that he is tired of all this and just does not want to admit it first, because he is embarrassed. Seem like Rudy?"

Klaus sighed and shook his head. "Of course it does. He is stubborn too, you know."

This time, Matthias had a full, genuine laugh, and was pleased to see some light in Klaus' eyes.

"You do not think I know, after last three weeks of the tour with him? I am grateful to survive it." He placed his list of phone numbers back on the table. "You know how I set this list up?"

Klaus picked up the list and skimmed down it.

"Everything above this line you put here are the numbers I know," he noticed. "It is not everything that I put on mine."

"Every number above this line -half the page -those are ones _both_ you and Rudy asked for. All of them, you _agree_. And it is _a lot."_

"Maybe we will not need any of the others," said Klaus, now with a greater hint of light flickering on in his eyes, setting off the same in Matthias'.

"Yes!" Matthias pointed up in the air and hopped off his seat. "Because how many will we really need to go through to find somebody?"

"Can we make calls today without Rudolf here?"

"We will call him and let him know first, so he will not be upset," said Matthias. "If we cannot get him, maybe we will wait. Do you want to try? Try just one time to fix this?"

"Yes." Klaus looked at the list. "We call Rudy, then call Commander and Peter to tell them too, you know, and we see if the first will come try with us..."

He put his finger on the name right at the start -the first name that had been on Rudolf's list.

"...Ralph Rieckermann. Let's call him."

"Alright, we will call him. But first, we call Rudolf together, and you try with him. If he has problem, I can take over."

The phone rang a few times, but just as Klaus and Matthias were becoming concerned that maybe they would have to go home without a small step toward recovery, Rudolf answered.

"Yes?

"Rudolf, it's Klaus and Matthias." Klaus spoke quickly in hopes of getting through what he had to say before Rudolf decided to shut off, if he did.

_'Keep going',_ Matthias mouthed, encouraging Klaus when he wasn't met with a dial tone.

"We decided to call Ralph Rieckermann first, but before we do, we want to let you know and ask if you are okay with it."

"Ralph is okay," replied Rudolf, with some hesitation. "You can call him."

"We will also be calling Peter and Commander before we do."

"If he is willing to try, we will let you know," Matthias added, before they ended the successful -if uncomfortable -call.

Klaus sighed, placing the phone down and looking as though a weight of lost hope had been lifted from him.

"I will call Peter if you call Commander," he suggested. "Thank you, Matthias."

Matthias shook his head.

"We try _together_, Klaus, to save this band. _You_ will try. Thank _you_."


	6. We've Got to Rearrange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus arrives to audition day feeling his best since Francis' departure and ready to move forward. It's still questionable if Rudolf is ready. But how much longer can Herman and Matthias wait for him when Francis' replacement feels the sting in the air too? With Klaus having already opened up, Matthias attempts to get to the bottom of Rudolf's hard feelings.

If the Scorpions had ever needed to be sent an angel, despite the continuing tension, they could all unanimously agree they needed one now more than ever. Klaus' vocal injury was a mere moment of panic by comparison.

Though no word of agreement was spoken aloud, they could also agree that Ralph was an angel sent to them in their moment of need.

He immediately agreed to audition when Klaus and Matthias called him, and fit in perfectly during the jam session. He had his notable differences from Francis, but he made his style slide in between each part and fit as if he'd been there all along.

Maybe they'd find down the line they'd have to make some minor adjustments to optimize the sound on other songs. But they'd be subtle and insignificant compared to the changes they'd made in the series of changes before Matthias held his place on guitar for the long term. Easy enough to rearrange.

Rudolf tried to smirk toward Klaus when Ralph came up to jam beside him on the studio floor as they reached the pre-solo part of "Big City Nights" where both guitar parts and the bass mostly followed the same line, but Klaus was focused on singing, trying his best to get on with the band itself rather than the fight, and wasn't looking at Rudolf to see it then.

It wasn't as hard to look on with the band itself with what he heard behind him. He was smiling by the time he hit the high note of "maybe tonight!" As he might have under normal circumstances, he spun around, sweeping a finger across where Matthias, Ralph, and Rudolf stood beside each other, punctuating the motion with a flick of his wrist toward Rudolf as he hit the first note of the solo, then went on to flash Ralph a thumbs-up.

It almost looked normal. It could _pass_ as normal, assuming Rudolf was too swept up in one of his opportunities to play lead to acknowledge Klaus' sign.

Was it the sign they were close to forming a new normal?

At the end of the jam, they sent Ralph out to have a discussion. Ironically, it was silence that fell on the rehearsal floor once Ralph was behind the closed door of the hallway.

"Give only simple 'yes' or 'no'," ordered Herman. "Is there _any_ reason to call _anyone_ else?"

Klaus and Rudolf stayed silent.

"Unless Ralph changes mind and does not want to be with us, no." Matthias shook his head, sneaking sidelong glances toward Klaus and Rudolf, and seeing neither of them showed any sort of surprise or disagreement to his own statement.

Klaus shook his head too.

"I do not see any reason to," Rudolf finally answered.

"He could fit in just perfect," Klaus added.

They were in agreement. Choosing Ralph without calling and trying anyone else meant no room for another divide later on who was better.

"Then do all of us want to offer this place to Ralph?"

Rudolf shrugged. "Fine."

"Let's do this." Klaus took the first step toward the door, and they all made their way down the hall to the lounge where Ralph waited for them.

The prospective bassist was surprised, and a bit concerned with how short a wait it had been. From that, he gathered they loved or hated his playing outright, and he was anxious to find out which one it was.

But he waited patiently for his potential bandmates to all enter and situate within the room. They'd all been friendly with him, continuing through the jam. _That_ seemed like a good sign enough -or at least Ralph hoped it was one.

Less assuring was how tense they'd all seemed with each other throughout the afternoon. He couldn't tell if they were uncomfortable with _him_ and the friendly attitudes were simply a polite gesture, or if there was something else he didn't know about.

Chalking it up to the inevitable stress of replacing a band member, Ralph decided not to chase that question unless he had reason to later. Whatever was the case, it wasn't going to change the answer to the more important question now.

Herman held his breath when he watched Ralph cast a look of confusion toward Klaus and Rudolf. On entry, they moved to opposite sides of the room, which stuck out more than it might have otherwise with the lack of any word between them since Ralph's arrival.

Maybe Ralph saw through it. Would he be willing to join in the midst of a silent war between two of the more-visible members?

But, to Herman's relief, he didn't raise alarms on it.

With uncomfortable quiet passing without a word from Klaus or Rudolf, Matthias finally broke the silence.

"So, we have talked about this, and we did not think it would happen this quickly, but we did not see any other reason to look further-"

"Matthias and his big mouth," grumbled Rudolf, with a smirk. Well, at least that seemed more relaxed and playful.

Matthias sighed and shook his head, holding back a sarcastic grin.

"Ralph? How would you like to meet us in rehearsal, starting next week?"

"Am I in?"

Even when Ralph's eyes lit up at the question, Matthias could read caution in his features.

"If you want to be," Klaus and Rudolf both said in unison.

"We are all in agreement," Herman offered. "Unless you do not want it, we do not want to look further."

Klaus and Rudolf both stepped a pace further apart, without glancing to each other or seeming aware of it. As if both were subconsciously stating they were agreeing because they both liked Ralph, and not to please the other.

Rudolf, because he didn't want to please Klaus through his stubborn grudge, and Klaus, because he didn't want Rudolf to think he was and see it as more reason to stay angry.

"Well, that's an... honor." Ralph hesitated at yet another sign of discomfort before him while blushing for his own reasons. But not seeing any part of said discomfort directly aimed at him, he shrugged and smiled shyly.

"Then why not?"

.............

Klaus seemed in good spirits when the time came to leave, despite the continued cold shoulder from Rudolf, and his avoidance shifting to an act of walking on eggshells around him. So, Matthias decided not to worry about checking in with him once the time came to head home, and instead followed Rudolf home for a celebratory jam of their own.

What was intended to be an hour-long, quick visit turned into a three-hour stay over into the evening, similar to one they might have had in the early eighties, writing and jamming together during Klaus' recovery, in good spirits despite the uncertainty they faced.

Halfway through, Matthias had offered to come back the next day so he and Rudolf could continue working with a couple of faint ideas on the horizon, but even Margret had been quick to tell Matthias he didn't need to rush out if he didn't have anything else he needed to take care of.

_"It's the closest to himself I've seen him in a month,"_ she'd quipped, unusually snide.

So Matthias stayed longer, until the time came that he did need to be on his way home. They all had quite a few phone calls to make with Peter and Commander in the morning to confirm Ralph's placement in the band, and to give them the go-ahead to start looking at tour date options.

"Two days. In the studio," said Matthias, without much thought as he began to pack up his gear.

Just like that, the room seemed to darken. It was already dusk outside the windows, but the warm glow from the lamp beside the sofa and over Rudolf's amp table had seemed plenty bright until that split second. All the friendly spirit dropped out of the air, and Matthias practically felt the need to shiver before turning around to face his friend.

Rudolf's smile had faded, and he was now sulking on one of the couches. Beneath it, however, he had a tormented look in his eyes.

"What is it?" Matthias put a bundled cord in his hand down in his gear bag and stopped packing.

A snort.

"What do you _think?"_

"Then let's talk about it." Matthias pushed himself up from the floor and sat down on the couch behind him.

Rudolf sighed. "I do not _want_ to talk about it, Matthias."

"Why? Why not?" Matthias sat back and slung his right ankle up to rest casually on his left knee, stating he had no intention to leave now. "Maybe we _should_ anyway."

"It is not easy-"

"Yes, it is not easy, but so what? It's not _supposed_ to be easy. This was not supposed to happen, you know? But it still _did_. We still have to deal with it, because it happened. And we still have to talk about it. So we can be finished dealing with it and not have to come back to each other that way."

Rudolf scowled, but sat back on the other couch he was on, resigning to it. Matthias was stubborn. Once he'd made up his mind, it'd take a miracle and a half to change it -as he quite frequently teased the younger guitarist.

_The same can be said for you,_ Matthias often mused, now wondering how much luck he had left to work with just for Rudolf agreeing to talk.

"Look, Rudy. We know why Klaus wanted Francis sent home. It is same reason he is not here now. Why did you not agree?"

"Why does it matter now?" Rudolf rolled his eyes sarcastically, casting a sidelong glare toward Matthias -a gesture the latter used far more often, albeit not in truly serious conversations. "He is gone, and we know he did it."

"Why did it matter _then?"_

"That doesn't matter now, because we could not find something to say he is innocent," insisted Rudolf. "I hoped they would, and that we could enjoy the last weeks. That would not work if he was already home."

"But he did not go home. And it was not alright with him anyway."

"Because he did it -and because we could not find replacement in time-"

"No, you left too early," Matthias cut in. "Klaus changed his mind -he knew it would be difficult to find replacement on the road and called Commander to tell him not to look."

_"That_ was not the problem!"

"Okay, okay -I hear you say that. Then what was it?"

"Francis deserved what he got staying because he had something to do with it and Dieter. I told Klaus, if he made his bed that way, he should lie in it," Rudolf explained.

"Which you do not think would not have happened if we sent Francis home," Matthias finished. "So Klaus wanted him gone sooner if he had-"

"-That is the problem then! What if we found out he had not -not that it matters now, you know."

"It does not matter when this has not ended? Yes, it does," deadpanned Matthias, taking care to refrain from the habitual eye-roll he'd seen Rudolf mimic earlier. This was serious.

"So then let's say that Francis did not -then what did you expect?"

"Klaus was too optimistic. I saw it real way -did he think that sending Francis home if he was innocent would not be worse? Francis would leave this band anyway after that -sending him home would be goodbye before fixing this," Rudolf spat. "Maybe, with him there, if Peter found something else and cleared him, we would have time to say proper goodbye -forgive things before he left."

"Francis still would have been miserable for no reason until then," Matthias warned, "but I see what you say."

"So when Klaus was sick, let's say he did not get better. We kick him out then, we might not talk again. We give him chance -at least we were there for him, and maybe we would still talk to each other now."

"That mattered because we _are_ friends," Matthias added, repeating the reason they'd all held together then.

"Francis was a friend." Whether Rudolf had noticed the active description of Klaus's friendship Matthias made or not, he didn't comment on it.

For better, or worse.

"I knew if he had involvement, he did some part of it, because he would know. Like I told Klaus, Francis is not stupid. But I do not think Klaus wanted to give Francis the chance to show if he was innocent."

_That is why,_ Matthias realized. He was getting somewhere.

Rudolf's grudge toward Klaus was -whether or not he was aware of it -presenting as how he felt Klaus had treated Francis' departure! _If only I can make him see it and not think I chose a side against him..._

Rather than making an accusation, he tried to pry his way in with a question.

"So, in other words, that is the reason for everything between you and Klaus? The way it has been last week here?"

Rudolf lunged forward to sit on the edge of his seat in fury.

"That is different." He slapped his fist into his opposing palm for emphasis. "Klaus let Francis stay to make it easy and not find a replacement on the road. With me, he has-"

_So much for having THAT work!_

Matthias didn't know what came over himself next, but before Rudolf could even get going on the past week with Klaus, he yanked his guitar over his shoulder and threw it down on the sofa as soon as he was free from the strap. 

A pained cry from the instrument wailed through the amp on impact, almost echoing Matthias' shout, and the invisible shattering of his resolve.

"Damn it, Rudy!"

The guitar was unharmed due to the soft surface it had landed on, but Matthias wasn't the type to destroy instruments with the respect he held for each and every guitar he touched. Just by setting it down hard, he might as well have smashed it to bits in a blind rage, or taken on the role of the lobotomy patient Rudolf had played in the "No One Like You" video. Perhaps if he was a musician more prone to taking it out on his instruments, he'd have done just that.

But he didn't. Nor did he lash out at Rudolf further. Instead, he backed off, seemingly intent on leaving his guitar behind and out of reach from his fury.

The less threatening move was enough to make Rudolf freeze in place and stare at him.

"You have _problem,"_ said Matthias, standing in the doorway, breathing heavily as he braced himself by his hands in the frame. "You have _BIG_ problem! And I am done with it being _my_ problem."

"Matthias-"

"You don't like it?" Matthias yelled, voice betraying the pain and stress when it jumped up an octave and he stumbled over his accent. _"Fix it!_ Stop this! You think zhat you are the only one miserable from this, and you are not! It is not fair to Ralph, coming here in the middle of this, not knowing why you and Klaus are acting strange and thinking that he is in trouble or you do not like him because he is the replacement. And it is not fair to Herman when he has had it come from his closest friend, only to have this too with you, and I am tired of it! I was close to Francis too -do not forget who brought me into this band. Yes, zhat friendship is forever damaged, yes I am angry with him and agree with him not being here, but it does hurt. I get it! Everything that made him 'friend' for over _ten years_ does not just _go away_ when it all changes in a _day!"_

He clenched a fist and lifted it up beside his head, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The pain was visible on the surface now -the same pain he knew was driving Rudolf's behavior, but he refused to let it knock him down while he had half a chance to get through.

"You have known Klaus longer. And this fight is not like with Francis! Klaus has been ready to forgive you for a week -you are the only reason it still is like this. The only reason you do not see it is because you make it so you see only what you want -'making your bed' that way -and it will not get better until you rearrange it so. To go through the pain of _this_ over something stupid as pride? I am tired of seeing you bring this on _yourself_ and pretend you do not care -I know better than zhat!"

Looking up to face Rudolf's blank stare, Matthias picked up his gear bag and left his guitar sprawled on the couch, intent to leave it. 

He had to. As much as he loved each of his guitars, it was less important.

Despite Rudolf's angry fits and strange behavior, he still trusted Rudolf, as Klaus did even after the painful words.

As Rudolf had wanted to trust there was a chance Francis was innocent, even when they knew he wasn't.

He needed him to see that. And one of his guitars would just have to stay there to show it, until the next opportunity he had to come back and get it.

"We wait for you. Herman and I. I do not know about Ralph. But we wait for you, with this, just like we waited for Klaus. But when Klaus was hurt, he did things to get better while we waited for him. You need to do that too. Get over it!"

The younger guitarist stormed out of the room and made a swift exit from the house, leaving Rudolf in silence.

He waited until the growl of a car motor driving off broke it to sigh deeply and rise from the other couch, to pick the guitar up and move it to a safe place for the night.

That was the easiest part to rearrange.


	7. Magic of the Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let the walls fall down and the healing of chasms begin... A moment in the car like old times brings on the memories of a magical moment from those times. Will it bring the wind of change that will break down the walls between Klaus and Rudolf?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took so long to get the dialogue to build up the way I wanted it to... I credit the Rolling Stone article about the multiple bands in the Moscow Music peace festival for helping me form some dialogue on their memories there.

Ralph's fourth afternoon in rehearsal with the Scorpions began like any other. 

Everyone greeted him pleasantly on his arrival, and someone -usually Klaus, Matthias, or Rudolf -told him what songs they were going to be working on.

Klaus and Rudolf didn't seem to be trying to ignore each other as they had on his first day. They visibly greeted each other with distant nods when they arrived. Still, little words passed between each other, aside from work and setup related questions, such as, _'where is [this thing]?', 'did your cord come unplugged from amp?',_ and _'your volume is too low'._

That went into rehearsing more songs, and seeing how Ralph fit into all potential choices for a live setlist. If something didn't sound quite right, they all worked to find a way to fit his different style in. And if it was a song Ralph didn't know all the way through, they paused and allowed him the chance to listen to it, figure out how to play it, and practice with them.

Usually, over the course of four hours each day, they got an average of five to seven songs covered, depending on how well Ralph knew what Herman, Klaus, Matthias, and Rudolf picked to cover. If they had extra time, they would jam and see if they came up with an improvised hook that could become a song, should they opt to record a studio album instead of falling back on the live option the band had already considered doing before finding out about Francis.

However, after the second song, just a little over an hour into the process, things took an entirely different turn.

"We are having a ride in the car," said Matthias, more like an order than a statement. Visibly, he'd caught both Klaus and Rudolf off guard just as much as he had Ralph, but his tone left little room for either to argue.

"Just like old times. It had been too long since we have. All of us, we will go together. And we will bring Ralph. Maybe _then_ we will get an idea, like we usually do there!"

Ralph shrugged, but made his way to the door after Klaus and Rudolf, who at least seemed to have no objection to the idea of being in a car together. That was a marked improvement on its own in Herman's eyes, but Matthias passed him a knowing look, and he suspected they might be less keen on the conditions the younger guitarist wanted.

It wasn't just for a change of scenery, and an inability to get distracted by other things present to work with in the studio. Granted, that was important in deciding whether to change album plans as well.

It wasn't just for an opportunity to hang out together as it might have once been in the past either.

Klaus was still receptive to Rudolf, but too uncertain whether to take a step further with him and risk reigniting their long-standing argument. He was certain it would if that step was too far and too fast.

The mortar in Rudolf's walls was crumbling. He still nursed his inner wounds from the chaotic final weeks with Francis, but Matthias had shaken his stubborn grudge hard enough to destroy its integrity. The days that had passed since their talk had allowed it to further deteriorate.

The unreasonable anger that had been there a week ago wasn't so present anymore though. Despite having just enough disintegrated stubbornness left standing to have not made full amends with Klaus yet, it was impossible not to show how tired he was of being apart and how much he wished they weren't so uncomfortably divided.

Tense, short, minimal exchange that would have been tinged with a harsh speaking voice now came out listlessly. He didn't have the strength to sound annoyed, and barely had it in him to say anything at all when he knew it wouldn't just jump right back to normal, and didn't know how to start it getting there.

Intent on driving, Matthias immediately invited Ralph to sit up front with him, giving him an up-front view of their upcoming joyride down the Autobahn. 

It seemed like a strange arrangement; with Klaus and Rudolf being the undeniable band leaders, Ralph would have expected to end up in the backseat with them to talk and get to know each other well. However, Matthias was certainly very talkative and animated. While an unexpected front seat partner, he wasn't one who was impossible to imagine being somewhat normal, and without knowing which car belonged to each, it might have just been Matthias' car. Ralph didn't question it, having seen that everyone proceeded outside like nothing was different from normal.

As Matthias and Ralph climbed in up front, Herman quickly jumped in the right back passenger seat and settled in against the door with his arms folded across his chest, showing no intent to move. That was the first sign of something unusual as they got in the car.

Herman and Matthias had talked with each other the night before. They'd decided together that Matthias would be better at keeping Ralph entertained up front, and Herman would make a better backseat mediator -if for nothing else than that neither Klaus or Rudolf would want to get in a fight with a drummer -or be broken up by one.

Without looking at each other, Klaus and Rudolf both peered inside the car at Herman, and at the front passenger seat that Ralph was in. But Matthias stared straight ahead behind the shield of his sunglasses, and Herman raised his eyebrows and shrugged at both of them, feigning innocence, before murmuring:

"Are you going to wait all day to get in?"

He would sit in the back and make sure nothing got too far out of hand, but he _strongly_ refused to be a physical barrier between them, and didn't need words to make that clear.

Klaus sighed in resignation and climbed into the claustrophobic middle seat. Something he accepted as his fate anytime he was in the backseat, because he knew and understood that he was the smallest and could fit in with the most ease and comfort of anyone in the band.

As he strapped himself in, and as Rudolf took the left back seat with a half-hearted scowl, pointedly staring toward the window, it was the only time Klaus had ever looked uncomfortable in that seat, or postured like someone who was trapped.

"So, is this something you do?" asked Ralph, breaking the uncomfortable silence as Matthias pulled out of the parking space and turned the radio on.

"At times, yes. Sometimes it helps. We get away from other things to talk about plans, you know -sometimes what we do not want to do, but know we have to," Matthias explained. "We need to discuss album plan before we start, but I think we can talk about fun things too."

"We've had fun too, on autobahn, you know?" Klaus piped up. "It is not just to deal with boring things -sometimes it makes it fun."

Herman smirked, feeling a bit encouraged. "Do you have a favorite time from in the car, Klaus?"

"The first time back from the surgery, when I was better." Klaus sprung a playful grin at the memory.

"Which part? When we turned on radio and decided to sing, or when you-?"

Klaus began laughing.

Beside him, Rudolf held back a snort and turned to hide the grin he couldn't hold back quite as well.

Matthias stole a scolding glance through the rear view mirror. "I STILL think that was Rudy's idea, and you would not tell us!"

Klaus gave a mock-innocent grin and put his palms up.

"You scared us with that," Herman scolded, over a low, tired chuckle, reaching over and nudging Klaus. "Do not do that again, unless it is real."

"Wait, what did he do?"

"First song we heard with high note, Klaus pretended to not hit it and break off with choke on it," Matthias snickered. He proceeded to bug his eyes out and fake a raw, scratchy sound with his voice, which almost sent him into a real coughing jag.

Ralph was laughing up front as Matthias continued to tell stories of amusing past experiences on tour, most of which were made more funny by Matthias snickering over them as he tried to talk, and his animated gestures.

It was hard to catch everything Ralph asked up front, because with the weather warm and pleasant after a week of torrential downpour, Matthias had the front windows down as he pushed the pedal to the metal, sending the car flying down the road unyieldingly, and wind flying into their faces and blowing through their hair. He had the radio cranked over the road noise now, on a rock station, and with each familiar song, Ralph was lighting up and asking Matthias questions about every band he could recall having shared a bill with the Scorpions, leading to more funny stories involving said bands.

Then, after some Metallica song faded out, the car nearly went quiet, aside from road noise. It took a moment to distinguish a faint, synthesizer undertone, and not a second before clear, high pitched whistling broke through it over clean, guitar picking.

Herman snorted and turned somewhat pink in the cheeks. It had once been fun to catch themselves on the radio, but now it had happened enough, particularly with their recent hit that had been played ad nauseum for political reasons, that it felt a bit embarrassing with a new band member in the car.

But Ralph lit up once more, and perhaps the question he asked was just the right one to pull back a better story from the song.

"You all performed for the festival after the wall went down; what was it like?"

"Oh, it was fun," Matthias declared.

Rudolf snorted. "It was big mess."

"Yes, playing in war zone; certain things were not put right yet," Klaus added, "but it was very important thing, and we still are happy to have been part of it, you know."

"It was good thing, but we were happy to go home after too," said Herman. "That is the nice way I can put it."

"Traveling was big mess. Tom Keifer from Cinderella got sick off bad water before trucks brought it clean in bottles," groaned Matthias, shaking his head and pretending to duck over the steering wheel in misery.

Rudolf snickered and pointed forward at Matthias. "And everyone on the plane having party -Ozzy, and everyone with Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi, and Doc yelling at them to get some sleep-"

"Oh, Ozzy..." Klaus lit up, having seen far more of his drunken antics, and Sharon's struggle to control them on the flight into Russia.

Holding his own memories back, Herman listened to as much as he could make out of the others chiming in at once. His notepad lay in his lap while he gazed out the window, pretending to be deep in thought over what he might write.

Instead, he was hiding a smile from Klaus and Rudolf. One he hadn't felt come to him in over a month, and one that came with the feeling that _this_ was why he'd chosen to stay just awhile longer, and what he would miss even if he wouldn't miss the direction the music was changing in. And what he already _had_ missed and feared might not come back before the time came for him to leave.

The chorus was replaying, right before the bridge that would build up to the guitar solo.

"...And then we got back, and few months later, you know, that was when the wall came down," Klaus finished.

"And that was when you wrote this song," said Ralph.

"That was when we knew we had to write something." Matthias nodded.

"We were in Paris, and we saw it on TV. Klaus pointed to TV over my head and he said 'the wall', and I turned around." Rudolf was mimicking the motions as best as he could within the confines of his seat, twisting and pointing as the lead of the guitar solo took off. "We watched parts of the wall come down, with people on it."

"We dropped everything and had big party right there!" Herman couldn't hold back from chiming in any longer. "Rudy shouted for manager -I think everyone there joined the party. As if backstage, but different from that -everyone was so happy."

"I remember I saw about it, and it was the same way where I was too." Ralph grinned at the memory. "People who did not even know each other were like 'hey!' and hugging and laughing together-"

"I had to write something when we got home, you know, because I remember, from the festival to home, to tour, and to then, we saw hope build each day, and like nothing we could believe before, and-" Klaus trailed off and waved a hand through the air, stopping before he could choke up.

"We had tears, when the wall fell." Rudolf snorted and pointed to Klaus. "He is going to cry now, if he will continue!"

"You did too, then," Klaus scolded, regaining composure, "and then you were on table during party-"

"OH, yes! He WAS!" Matthias howled, gripping the steering wheel for control in his hysterics as Klaus and Herman proceeded to tell Ralph the details, before Rudolf chimed in with what he could remember from his inebriated moments, trying to save face.

As they finished, the swell of music came crashing to a halt to fade back into the soft whistling that would lead the song out, and Matthias swallowed hard against the swell it had brought up in the back of his throat. 

The swell that was his heart all but bursting as he saw Rudolf and Klaus turned toward each other once again -perhaps not laughing as hard or sitting as close as they would before, but surely tearing their walls down further with each passing minute, and surely on their way to getting back to normal if they were teasing each other playfully. It throbbed in his throat, as far as it reached, so that it hurt so good.

Turning toward the window, where wind still blew into the car, carrying the same familiar of hope from the past into present time, he silently prayed that Ralph figured the tears he stealthily wiped away were at least mostly of laughter, or over the memories. Even when Ralph asked if he was alright out of politeness.

"This past month has been almost _hardest_ thing we have _ever_ seen," he managed through a raspy tone that couldn't contain the smile on his face.

"...we had doubts, about this band and if it would make it through another big problem..."

He glanced through the mirror to see Herman slumped back in his seat with a euphoric, relaxed expression, beside Rudolf and Klaus, and the closest image Matthias could match in his head was sitting together on a flight home for Christmas at the end of a long tour, feeling so happy even while jet lagged and exhausted.

"...But if the other day did not take them away, I have none now that we _will_ be okay. Now that we talk of it... it almost feels as if the wall fell again, just now."

In more ways than Ralph would ever know.


End file.
